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Former President Donald Trump again criticized President Joe Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal and said it will result in China taking control of Bagram Air Base.
"We would have kept Bagram because it is next to China and it is one hour away from their nuclear facility, and we gave that up too," Trump claimed during an interview published Sunday on Fox News' website. "And now China's going to take over Bagram, in my opinion."
Though Trump agreed that it was time for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan, he accused the Biden administration of trying to forget about the withdrawal "disaster" and the repercussions that followed.
"They don't talk about it anymore. They don't talk about it, purposely. It was so bad that it was killing him. Two, three days after it ended, they stopped even mentioning it," he said.
"What they did with the so-called withdrawal, which was really a surrender, what they did, it was the most embarrassing, horrible thing, and I don't know that we ever psychologically recover from that," Trump added.
The former president also said that the generals should be held "responsible because they should have never allowed that to happen." He noted that the generals could have also convinced Biden "into reason" when handling the August withdrawal.
During his interview, Trump said that the withdrawal should have been handled differently and recalled his deal with the Taliban that involved taking out U.S. troops by May 2021.
"Don't forget, I'm the one that brought it down to 2,500 troops. I would have been out too, but we would have been out with strength," he said.
Trump noted that if he was in control of the withdrawal operation, he would have retained control over the Parwan Detention facility, a military prison located next to the Bagram Air Base.
The former president blamed Biden for the 13 U.S. service members killed in an ISIS-led terrorist attack outside of Kabul's international airport and for leaving behind military equipment and some American citizens and U.S. holders in Afghanistan.
"We would have gotten all the people out, we would have brought all of our equipment out, we wouldn't have had dead soldiers, we wouldn't have soldiers missing arms and legs—because people don't even talk about that—we lost 13, but we have many that have been gravely wounded," he said.
Newsweek contacted Trump's office and the White House for comment.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Biden over the Afghanistan withdrawal. He said in August that the president should have evacuated American citizens first before taking out military members.
The former president wasn't the only one who criticized the withdrawal. Biden also came under fire from lawmakers for taking out all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and abandoning the Bagram Air Base.
In August, Republican Florida Rep. Michael Waltz warned against the consequences of a full withdrawal, suggesting that it will result in the resurgence of al-Qaeda. "Biden gave all our bases away," he said.
"[President Joe] Biden's own intelligence community is saying that 'the Taliban equals Al-Qaeda,'" Waltz added during an appearance on Fox News in August. "Al-Qaeda is going to grow back and they are going to attack the West again. That is absolutely going to happen and we need to have somebody to work with when future American soldiers have to go back again."
Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a supporter of Trump, in August called on Biden to take back Bagram Air Base.
"I urge the Biden Administration to reestablish our presence in Bagram as an alternative to the Kabul airport so that we do not leave our fellow citizens and thousands of Afghan allies behind. It is not a capability problem, but a problem of will," Graham tweeted.
Despite the criticism, Biden has defended his Afghanistan withdrawal that ended the two-decade war.
"We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety. That number is more than double what most experts thought were possible. No nation—no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and the will and the ability to do it, and we did it today," Biden said in a public address on August 31.
"The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery, and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals," he added.
About the writer
Fatma Khaled is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. politics, world ... Read more